I think siblings of different graduating classes and twins are completely different. Especially twins of the same gender.
Well, yup, theyâre all different. Peopleâs stories are fun to hear, but they wonât necessarily offer much of use to any two given kids / twins / sibs. Our older two - who had (due to some unusual aspects of our public schools, among other things) never gone to the same school at the same time - ended up at the same very small college for one happy year. They are similar in a number of ways but quite different in others. Even at a small school, they had separate friend groups, though there was some overlap. They loved it, and we loved it. But I donât know what conclusions anybody could draw from that, other than maybe the notion that you shouldnât automatically discourage choosing the same school, even if itâs tiny. I think it comes down to doing your best to help your kids make sure theyâre choosing a school for the right reasons.
(Blah blah blah, kind of Captain Obvious - I donât think typing counts as exercise to work off all the stuffing and gravy, but Iâm willing to try.)
Thanks for all of the thoughts on my twin dilemma! They are identical, and Iâm hyper aware of the formative time period that college brings. Again, itâs their decision. But do I really think that itâs best for them to repeat the same potential culture of comparison that they have lived all through high school? Shouldnât they be planted somewhere different so that they can bloom independently? I realize that in a school of 35k, they wonât likely cross paths. But the comparison is likely to occur if they are in the same major. And given the standard vs direct issue⊠what if standard admit twin does not achieve the standard for admission and has to transfer? I canât imagine the silent ego blow that would bring.
So yesterday I broke the news to her that her sister had direct admit. She blew it off and said âWell, she doesnât want to go there anyway.â The truth is that she did NOT want to go there until she found out she had direct admit and now sheâs interested.
Cocktails, anyone?
@mtemmd Congrats on Pitt! My D17 loved it there (we visited twice), but in the end, the merit was just not there. We even appealed and she was awarded more, but by then it was too late and sheâd moved on. I hope the merit works out for you, or that merit isnât required. Iâd hoped D20 could look at it for nursing, but she just doesnât have the stats to make it affordable OOS either.
Thanks!!! We will definitely be hoping for merit, and still have several schools to hear back from. We really liked Pitt so nice to hear back from them and if he ends up there I am sure it will be great! But also ?
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share - out of the blue, D agrees to apply to a safety Iâve been talking about for the last few months - a day before the deadline! Until now, she wouldnât hear of it and claimed the cc is all the safety she needs.
Grinding my teeth in private, I was set on letting her do whatever she wants, but couldnât quite contain my joy today when she made the announcement. I guess peer pressure got to her, but whatever the reason for her changing her mind, I am relieved 
Cheers everyone!
@typiCAmom Congrats on your D changing her way of thinking. Now, just donât act too excited or she may change her mind. ha
It is funny how their college opinions change. I used to teach HS and I said that every year my seniorsâ college ideas would be vastly different between fall and spring. My thoughts are that, in the fall, they are more influenced by what their peers are talking about doing, or whatâs the most popular college talk. In the spring they start to think about whatâs more real for them.
First acceptance here, S got into NC A&T for Computer Engineering. No info on financial aid or honors college though.
On Monday evening he finds out if he gets matched with a full ride to one of the colleges he ranked through Questbridge. ?
Good luck to your S @MamaBear2001!
Anyone elseâs kid adding new schools with each deadline? DD added a school on Oct 31st for a Nov 1st deadline and then just applied today for one with a Dec 1st deadline. Neither of which she had discussed much with us before the day she applied.
She has now applied to 9 schools of all sizes, spread out all across the country.
She has been admitted to 3 already, and received good merit to full rides at all 3, so she is lucky that she will definitely have some affordable options. I think she will likely be admitted to most/all if the rest of schools because she falls in the top 25% of all of them. So if will likely come down to scholarship offers.
Iâm concerned that she doesnât seem to know what she wants since she keeps adding schools. And not sure how she will decide.
Our oldest only applied to 3 schools and they were all very similar. And he really liked all of them. She is literally all over the map.
@brentwoodmom My theory is that once they recognize that they can get good merit aid, their confidence for applying builds. Itâs not a bad thing have more choices. Youâll just have to listen to them to start helping them narrow. For example, mine have started subtly mentioning things that seem like narrowing factors to me, such as preference of size of city school is located in. When I hear it, I try to repeat it back to them for emphasis in the form of a question.
@brentwoodmom not having that experience here. DD20 is working on scholarship and honors program applications though. Maybe at the schools your DD is adding the entire process is the same application? DD was âtrying outâ the idea of going to a big football school yesterday by watching the âbig gameâ with DH. I heard more sarcasm than true enjoyment from her so I do not think that is going to happen UNLESS there is another compelling reason, like a big scholarship. Maybe your D is narrowing down what she wants based upon a criteria you cannot yet see â like affordability and an honors acceptance. Acceptance to honors can be much harder than to the school overall. Or, maybe it is just her way of using up her nervous energy while waiting for the answers.
@bigmacbeth Thank you!
@brentwoodmom My D18 did this. Her apply list had schools all over the map, from a tiny LAC to a massive football school, urban schools, rural schools, hot weather, cold weather, schools with an obscure major she might be interested in, etc. It seemed to be her way of keeping her options open until she was sure of what she wanted. She committed to one in February and hasnât looked back. I know a lot of kids have trouble with that, though.
One thing my D did before she made her choice is âtry onâ colleges for a few days. She would, in her head only, commit to a college and see how she felt about it. Sheâd look at housing options, academic calendars, and start mapping out degree plans and choosing classes for the first semester. Then sheâd switch to a different college that sheâd been accepted to. This really helped her figure out what was important to her.
Good luck to youâit is such a difficult process!
Hope everyone has a good thanksgiving break.
It has been âproductiveâ for DS, he submitted four applications, two for merit scholarships which the deadline is today and two for RD. He now has five apps out!
Sadly, he didnât find out that the music supplement to one of the scholarship schools requires school portal, and the Deadline for submission of The supplement is today too. He will definitely miss that supplemental deadline! Sigh!
@brentwoodmom DS is thinking of adding another âsafetyâ, I think he has seen his friends getting into rolling admissions and is afraid that he might not getting into any coming May. Definitely different situation from your Dâs.
@ShrimpBurrito I hope âmassive football schoolâ is not a negative. 
Football, menâs and womenâs basketball & hockey. These are all high on my D20âs list! She went to a large HS, played sports, and loves school spirit.
@bigmacbeth Massive football school is certainly not a negative, but there is a distinct culture that goes along with that type of university. D18 went to a HS with a big football culture (we just watched one of her classmates play in an NFL game last week!), but wasnât sure if she wanted that in college. She ended up at a school where sports are definitely NOT a thing!
S20 is ALL ABOUT the football culture. Wow. Lol
My daughterâs list of schools is pretty small but her top three are definitely different. One is a small school close to Pittsburgh (Robert Morris) and the other two are UCF and FSU, so two large schools very far from us in PA vs small school thatâs a drivable (though not close to home as weâre on the other side of the state). Though if she doesnât get very good merit from Florida then theyâre out of the picture and the decision will be made for her based on money. Hoping her stats are good enough for OOS tuition waiver but not sure thatâll happen.
She has honors applications to complete still but all done with regular applications at least. Should get UCFâs in the mail early this week.
Good luck to all with their various applications and decisions as they hear back from their various schools.
Congrats on all the acceptances!
It looks like we all are in the final stretchâŠ
My daughter received an Instagram follow request from âClass of 2024â from one school she applied EA. We are expecting decision with financial aid from that school by Dec 20th. We visited and she interviewed over the summer. Not sure if we should read too much into it.
Any of your kids have been contacted on social media by possible schools?
@ildro I have not heard my kids say they have been followed on social media. However, I do remember one school asking one of them if they would like to share a social media account username. I donât think my kids opted into this. Did you daughter? Or did they just find her online somehow? Just curious.